The present invention relates to an apparatus for forming gusset pleats in tubular packaging bags in a continuously operating packaging machine.
In such a machine, two oppositely disposed narrow sides of a tube of sealable material containing the items to be packaged at uniform mutual spacings are folded inwardly before a transverse seam is formed in the tube between every two items. An apparatus of this type is disclosed, for example, in commonly assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 422,143, filed by Christoph Mangold on Dec. 6th, 1973, now abandoned.
In this and in other known apparatuses mechanical pleating members are provided for forming the gusset pleats. It has been found in practice that these mechanical folding members cannot produce more than about 400 packages per minute.